Stuff You Missed

Your parents might have missed these Bible stories when they were your age, but you don’t have to!

 

Your parents might have missed these Bible stories when they were your age, but you don't have to!

This is the story of Samson from the Bible, the guy with long hair and really big muscles. The story of Samson is a story about good guys and bad guys, but it’s mainly about self-control.

The good guys in the story are the “Israelites”. The bad guys are the “Philistines”. They were always beating up the good guys. So God sent Samson. Here’s what God’s angel said to Samson’s mom:

Judges 13:5 “For he will be dedicated to God from birth. He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.”

God had a special purpose for Samson’s life.

God promised to make Samson a warrior.
In return, Samson made a promise to God. He actually promised three things.

Samson promised God not to touch dirty things, not to drink alcohol. and never cut his hair.
Now, God kept his promise. He made Samson really strong – like really, really strong. Stronger than my dad or your dad. He gave Samson that power so he could rescue his people from the Philistines. But Samson wasn’t good at keeping his promises. Even though he was strong and special, he made a lot of bad choices. He broke every one of the promises he made to God. And do you know why he broke those promises? You got it. Self-control. He didn’t have it,

Self-control is the ability to make good choices.
Even when you’re tempted not to.

  • Like not getting mad when you lose a game.
  • Or like not watching a movie that you know isn’t right.

Samson was tempted by a pretty girl named Delilah, and he told her the secret of his strength. He told her that he would be weak if he broke his promise to God and got a haircut. So here’s what happened:

Judges 16:19 Delilah lulled Samson to sleep with his head in her lap, and then she called in a man to shave off the seven locks of his hair. In this way she began to bring him down, and his strength left him.

Now kids, THIS STORY IS NOT ABOUT HAIR. So don’t grow out your hair like a greasy rock star.

The story of Samson is about self control and keeping your promises.
It doesn’t matter how cool or smart or strong you are – or even what your hair looks like. If you don’t have self-control, you’re headed for trouble. Here’s what the Bible says, it’s our memory verse for this lesson:

1 Timothy 4:8 Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better…

Self-control takes training. Training for godliness takes practice. Training for godliness means doing things that encourage you to go God’s way. Things like reading your Bible, obeying what it says, and listening to the Holy Spirit, you know, that tug in your heart that tells you which way to go. This kind of training will help you to make the right choices.

And when you mess up, you have to admit it and keep trying. And the good news is that God promises to help you, just like he helped Samson. Because at the end of the story, Samson’s strength came back. And he rescued the good guys from the bad guys.

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Key Points:

  • God promised to make Samson a warrior. Judges 13:5
  • Samson promised God not to touch dirty things, not to drink alcohol. and never cut his hair.
  • The story of Samson is about self control and keeping your promises. Judges 16:19

Memory Verse:

1 Timothy 4:8 Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better…

Talk About It
  1. Parents: Who is the strongest person you know? Kids: Who is the strongest person you know?
  2. Kids: Who were the good guys in the story? Who were the bad guys?
  3. Kids: What did Samson promise God he would never do to his hair?
  4. Parents: What does self control mean? 
  5. Parents: Share a time you showed self control and made a good choice. Share a time you lacked self control and made a bad choice. 
  6. Kids: What does self control look like when you’re playing your favorite sport? What does it look like when you’re hanging around with your friends?
  7. Parents and Kids: What are some things your family can do to strengthen your spiritual muscles?

This is part of the Stuff You Missed series.

KC Downloads:

Your parents might have missed these Bible stories when they were your age, but you don't have to!

Elijah was a prophet from long ago, before they had cell phones or cars or even Twinkies, Mmmmm…
Now to understand the story of Elijah, we have to learn about what a prophet is.

Elijah was a prophet, which is another word for messenger.
A prophet is a special messenger for God. Elijah was a prophet for the God of the Bible. He was a messenger for God. You know, the God we talk about every week, and sing about, and pray to. That God.

God has existed forever.
He’s not new around here, you know? God’s been around a long, long time. Before you were born. Before you parents were born. Even before the births of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and earth. And that’s the message God wanted Elijah to bring to the people. God wanted Elijah to tell everyone that he has been around forever, even before the earth was created.

God is the real God.
Sometimes people forget that. See, the people started making false gods. They made statues out of wood and stone and then they said, “Hey – let’s worship this thing. Let’s pretend that they’re gods!” Can you believe it? That would be like singing to a Twinkie:
“Oh Twinkie, how I love you!”

That’s silly. Twinkies can’t hear. They can’t do anything. They’re just Twinkies.

So anyway, in the story, Elijah told all of the people that their false gods aren’t really gods at all. But they didn’t believe him, so he set up a contest to prove it. Elijah told them to build an altar to their god, and he would build an altar to his God. They put wood on each of their altars, but they weren’t supposed to set it on fire yet. Instead, Elijah said this:

1 Kings 18:24 “Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God!” And all the people agreed.

Wanna guess what happened? The other prophets danced around and prayed and begged for their god to answer. But nothing happened. Because their god was as strong as a Twinkie.  So when it was Elijah’s turn, he did something crazy. Before he prayed to his God, he dumped a bunch of water on his wood until it was soaking wet. And then he prayed:

1 Kings 18:37 O  lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O  lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.”

And right when he prayed that, God sent fire from heaven and it burned everything up – even the water! God won the contest!

1 Kings 18:39 And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The lord—he is God! Yes, the lord is God!”

That’s a pretty cool story, huh? It’s a story about worshiping the one true God. But, “how can we worship the one true God?”

Now, there are probably a lot of answers to this question. But we’re just kids, so let’s boil it down to two main things.

We worship the One True God by singing and by obeying.

  1. Singing: that’s what we do when we sing songs to God. It’s one of the ways we can worship God as a kid. We should sing songs that say thanks to God for all He has done for us and to let Him know how much we love Him.
  1. Obeying: worship isn’t just about how we sing. It’s also about how we live. When kids obey God or their parents, they are showing with their actions that they love God.

We have a great God who loves us and wants to be in relationship with us. Let’s show Him how much we love Him through our words and actions.

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Key Points:

  • Elijah was a prophet, which is another word for messenger.
  • God has existed forever.
  • God is the real God.
  • We worship the One True God by singing and obeying.

Memory Verse:

Isaiah 40:28 …the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of all the earth.

Talk About It
  1. Parents and Kids: Name 5 things you’re grateful that God created.
  2. Kids: Who was Elijah? What was the job of a prophet?
  3. Kids: Why do you think people wanted to worship silly things rather than God?
  4. Parents: What are some examples of idols in today’s culture that people elevate above God?
  5. Read 1 Kings 18:22-38. Kids: What did God do to prove that He was the only real God? Kids: Why was Elijah so confident that his plan would work?
  6. Parents: Share a story of how God has shown up in your life in a cool way.
  7. Parents and Kids: How can you show gratitude to God this week?

KC Resources:

Your parents might have missed these Bible stories when they were your age, but you don't have to!

Today’s story is about a king from long ago, in the Bible. He was in a real tough situation. His name was Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat is chilling as king, maybe sipping a fruity cocktail or eating grapes. He was the big cheese, the boss man. Everything was good in the kingdom until one day…

2 Chronicles 20:1-2 …the armies of the Moabites, Ammonites, and some of the Meunites declared war on Jehoshaphat. 2 Messengers came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army is marching against you….”

The Moabites, the Ammonites and the Meunites declared war to King Jehoshaphat.
Hang on a second! What’s with all these names? Moabites, Ammonites, Mosquito bites? Not Mosquito bites! It’s like when we called a person from New York, New Yorker, or someone from Germany, German. In other words, the Moabites were from a country named Moab, the Ammonites from Ammon, and the Meunites from Maon.

But, the main thing from this verse is that Jehoshaphat was in some trouble. Did you catch that? Not just one army or even two. Three whole armies were coming to fight him! Yikes!

What do you think Jehoshaphat did when he heard this awful news? What would YOU do?
Think about it. What do you do when things go wrong? How do you act when a friend is mean to you or when someone in your family is sick, or when you get in trouble for something that you didn’t do? Do you pout, hit, or cry?

Wanna guess what Jeho did? (We decided to call him “Jeho” for short). Jeho called all of the people together and he did something really simple.

Jehoshaphat prayed to God when he was in trouble.

2 Chronicles 20:6 He prayed “O  lord, God of our ancestors, you alone are the God who is in heaven. You are ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth. You are powerful and mighty; no one can stand against you!”

See what he did? He prayed! Before he did anything else, he prayed and told everyone else to pray, too.  (He was King. He could do that.) The Bible says he was really scared but he didn’t let that get in the way. Instead, he prayed such a great prayer, that it’s our memory verse this week:

2 Chronicles 20:9 “…We can cry out to you to save us, and you will hear us and rescue us.”

Jehoshaphat knew that God was the only hope for his kingdom.
There was no way they could defeat three armies by themselves. So, they prayed. Wanna guess what happened after Jehoshaphat and the people prayed? God answered.

All of a sudden, the other armies just started fighting each other. They didn’t even come after Jehoshaphat’s army at all! Then, when Jehoshaphat and his people showed up to the battlefield they didn’t have to do anything. Can you believe it?

Jehoshaphat learned a big lesson about prayer.  He learned that God hears and answers our prayers. Isn’t that cool! Now, we know that we have to pray to God, but how does God want us to pray? It’s easy, just do these 3 things:

  1. Praise God
  2. Pray for others
  3. Pray for you

Did you notice the order? Praise God first. It helps us remember that He is our only real help. Then, pray for other people. It’s good for us to look outward and to think about the needs of our friends before our own. Then, ask God to help us with whatever we’re going through. Remember, God hears and answers our prayers.

God wants to help you in every situation.
Do what king Jeho did. PRAY.

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Key Points:

  • The Moabites, the Ammonites and the Meunites declared war to King Jehoshaphat. 2 Chronicles 20:1-2
  • Jehoshaphat prayed to God when he was in trouble. 2 Chronicles 20:6
  • Jehoshaphat knew that God was the only hope for his kingdom.
  • God wants to help you in every situation.

Memory Verse:

2 Chronicles 20:9 …We can cry out to you to save us, and you will hear us and rescue us.

Talk About It
  1. Kids: How do you act when you don’t get your way or think something is unfair?
  2. Parents: Share about a stressful time in your life. How did you act in the midst of that struggle?
  3. Kids: What did Jehoshaphat do when he was faced with a stressful situation? What happened after Jehoshaphat prayed?
  4. Parents: What are the three things we should remember to do when we pray?
  5. Read Philippians 4:6-7. Kids: Why don’t we need to worry when we pray? Who will help us when we’re scared? Parents: How can we be thankful even when we’re scared?

This is part of the Stuff You Missed series.

KC Downloads:

Your parents might have missed these Bible stories when they were your age, but you don't have to!

Naaman was commander of a powerful army. He met a young girl with no name and she’s the real hero of the story. Naaman was this great warrior commander dude who would go attack other countries and take all their stuff. He wasn’t a nice guy. He even attacked Israel, you know God’s people, and took them as slaves back in his country. Now, I don’t know about you, but I would NOT be a fan of Naaman if he kidnapped me and made me his slave. And that’s exactly what he did to the girl with no name.

Naaman was a great warrior, but he was a leper.
No, not a leopard. A leper. It’s a disease. Ever heard of it? Well, it’s nasty to look at and it’s real painful. So even though Naaman was successful, he had a lot of pain. People probably stared at him and maybe even made fun of him for how he looked.

So, here’s where the story gets interesting.

2 Kings 5:3 One day the girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy.”

What?! Did you catch that? The servant girl wanted to HELP Naaman! You know, the guy who had just come in and taken over her town. The guy who took her stuff and kidnapped her and brought her back as a servant in his home. She wanted to help THAT guy! Can you believe it? Do you ever want to be kind or helpful to someone who is mean to you? I think not! But, that’s why she’s the real hero in this story.

The girl with no name is a hero because she chose to show kindness to someone who was not nice to her.
We don’t even know her name! But she’s famous because of her actions. She chose to show kindness to someone who wasn’t kind to her. And that’s how God wants us to be.

Psalms 103:8  The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.

That’s exactly how little Penelope acted. (Oh, we decided she deserved a name.) She showed compassion to a guy who didn’t deserve it.  Do you know what compassion means?

Compassion means be tender-hearted to someone and see things from their point of view.
So, instead of hating Naaman and being mean to him, Penelope (servant girl) chose to see things from his point of view. You know, maybe the reason why he was so mean was because of how he looked.

How can kids show compassion? Two ways:

  1. Put yourself in the mean person’s shoes. Remember, they must have hurts on the inside that make them act the way they do.
  2. Be kind. Be an example of what a good friend should look like. You never know how your kindness could change the person.

Naaman for sure changed! Why? Naaman got healed. And he learned who the real God is.  All because of a little girl with no name.

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Key Points:

  • Naaman was a great warrior, but he was a leper.
  • The girl with no name is a hero because she chose to show kindness to someone who was not nice to her. 2 Kings 5:3
  • Compassion means be tender-hearted to someone and see things from their point of view.

Memory Verse:

Psalms 103:8  The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.

Talk About It
  1. Kids: Has anyone ever been mean to you at school? How did it make you feel? Did you ever try to be nice to them anyway?
  2. Kids: Who was the mean guy in the story? What disease did he have?
  3. Parents: What does it mean to show compassion to others? Share a time you showed kindness to someone in need.
  4. Read Psalm 103:8 Parents and Kids: What does this verse say about God’s character?
  5. Read Matthew 5:47. Kids: Why does God want us to be nice to everyone, not just our friends? What happens when we’re nice to others?

This is part of the Stuff You Missed series.

KC Downloads:

Your parents might have missed these Bible stories when they were your age, but you don't have to!

Key Points:

  • Josiah was only eight years old when he became king. 2 Kings 22:1-2
  • Idols are things that are not God. 2 Kings 23:2-3
  • Josiah read God’s Word and obeyed it.
  • The Bible has God’s words written on it so you can read it, obey it, and share it! 2 Timothy 3:16

Memory Verse:

Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.

Talk About It
  1. Are you an “expert” at something your parents know nothing about? (science, TV show, legos, a sport) Have you tried to teach them? How did it go?
  2. Kids: How old was Josiah when he became king? What rules would you make if you became president?
  3. Parents: Have you had bad teachers or bosses in your life? How did you handle that?
  4. Read 2 Timothy 3:16. Kids: Why is the Bible so important to people who love God? How does it help us?
  5. Parents: How has reading the Bible helped you in your life?
  6. Parents and Kids: What’s the difference between hearing versus obeying God’s word? What does it take to be obedient?

KC Resources:

Your parents might have missed these Bible stories when they were your age, but you don't have to!

Key Points:

  • The names of the three friends were Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
  • The three friends knew and worshiped the real God. Daniel 3:1-6
  • The three friends had Big faith in a Big God. Daniel 3:17-18
  • The three friends were thrown into the blazing furnace, but God rescued them! Daniel 3:19-26

Memory Verse:

1 Corinthians 16:13 Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong.

Talk About It
  1. Kids: What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done? Were you nervous? What or who helped you accomplish it?
  2. Kids: Read Daniel 3:8-12. What was the brave choice the friends had to make?
  3. Parents and Kids: Have you ever done something that was wrong just because you wanted to please your friends? Does this honor God? Why or why not?
  4. Read 1 corinthians 16:13. Parents and Kids: What are some ways you can be brave at work/school for God this week?

KC Downloads: